Hat Box, 1775 "The Large Sound in Harmony with the Small"

$58.00

Hat box 10 3/4 inches round by 8 inches deep with hand painted emblem for the 1775 Continental $8.00 paper bill along with a paper copy documenting the symbol. This box will work for a dragoon helmet or a woman's bonnet. Please measure your hat.

MAJORA MINORIBUS CONSONANT ("The Larger Are in Harmony With the Smaller") was the symbol and motto on the front of the $8.00 Continental paper bill authorized on 10 May 1775, and it was periodically re-issued throughout the Revolutionary War. The design itself came from a 1702 German book by Dr. Joachim Camerarius, from the private book collection of Benjamin Franklin. The symbol was also painted onto a red silk regimental color some time before the summer of 1778, and stored in a military depot in Phildelphia. The color was presumably issued to an unknown Continental Army regiment, along with two smaller divisional colors, one blue and one yellow, at some time afterwards. Although the harp was a well-known symbol of Ireland it is not believed to have had particular Irish significance in this symbolic art.

The box is made of pasteboard but is formed to shape not hand sewn of flat board as it should. The paints used here are similar to 18th century buttermilk paints, if not close duplicates of those paints. They are resistant to water droplets, but not proof against a flood or sustained downpour. They are susceptible to scuffing by harder objects; one might want to wrap them when traveling.

Proudly and patriotically hand painted in the Virginia Territory by Steven Gilbert of the recreated Capt. Lewis Dubois 3rd NY formed in 1775. It should be noted this box is not copied after any original. It is hand crafted in a period way and inspired by period objects. The design here has been replicated many times larger from a black and white print of a small paper bill. color choices remain the purview of the artist. It is intended to be a unique-hand-crafted original.